EJSCREEN: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping

EPA's Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool (EJScreen) is a comprehensive environmental justice mapping and screening tool that combines environmental and demographic information to help identify communities that may warrant further consideration for environmental justice concerns. This dataset provides detailed information at the census block group level across the entire United States, offering the most granular geographic resolution available for environmental justice analysis.

EJScreen integrates twelve environmental indicators covering air quality, water quality, proximity to hazardous waste sites, and other environmental burdens with six demographic indicators including minority population percentages, low-income households, limited English proficiency, and educational attainment levels. The tool calculates Environmental Justice Index scores that combine these environmental and demographic factors to help identify areas where environmental burdens and vulnerable populations intersect.

The dataset includes detailed metrics for criteria air pollutants, toxic air releases, traffic proximity, lead paint exposure, superfund proximity, Risk Management Plan facility proximity, hazardous waste proximity, underground storage tanks, and wastewater discharge indicators. Demographic data encompasses minority population, low-income population, unemployment rate, limited English proficiency, less than high school education, and population under age 5 and over age 64.

Designed to support screening-level analyses and help EPA staff, communities, and stakeholders better understand environmental burdens and demographic patterns, EJScreen serves as a starting point for environmental justice considerations in policy development, permitting decisions, enforcement priorities, and community engagement efforts. The tool provides standardized, nationally consistent data that enables comparative analysis across different geographic areas and helps identify cumulative environmental and demographic factors that may contribute to disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities.